My cooperating teacher has a friendly teaching style. She has deep relationships with her students and knows a lot about their interests. I believe that she is able to have this kind of a relationship with her students because this is her second year teaching them. It is an eighth grade class, and at this middle school, the teachers loop with their students. This means that they teach the same group of students in seventh, and then again in eighth grade. The teacher appears to have the same relationship with every class that I have seen her teach. Even though she is friendly with the students, the students understand that she is in charge of the classroom. They often have class discussions where everyone speaks, but if it gets too loud or the conversation falls off task, she is able to quickly regain control of the students by slightly raising her voice and saying something like, "okay guys, its interesting to talk about this with you, but right now we need to discuss science".
I hope to have a teaching style very similar to my cooperating teacher's style. However, when you only have a chance to teach students for one year, developing this kind of trust and bond with your students can be difficult. My plan is to give the students a survey at the beginning of the school year which will ask the students questions about their interests and hobbies. Once I have this feedback, I would like to incorporate their interests into our classes and to ask them questions about these interests so that the students will understand that I care about them as individuals. Along with developing this friendly relationship, it will also be important to demonstrate to the students that I am in charge of the classroom. Without this aspect, the students may think that they can take advantage of me because I am their "friend". In order to illustrate that I have the power in the classroom, I will make sure that within the first few weeks of school I am a little tougher and more controlling in the classroom. I will accomplish this by enforcing classroom rules consistently and keeping my expectations of performance high. Once the students understand the routine of my classroom, I can begin to loosen up on the reigns a little. This technique should help the students to respect me as their teacher and think of me as someone they can trust.
I hope to have a teaching style very similar to my cooperating teacher's style. However, when you only have a chance to teach students for one year, developing this kind of trust and bond with your students can be difficult. My plan is to give the students a survey at the beginning of the school year which will ask the students questions about their interests and hobbies. Once I have this feedback, I would like to incorporate their interests into our classes and to ask them questions about these interests so that the students will understand that I care about them as individuals. Along with developing this friendly relationship, it will also be important to demonstrate to the students that I am in charge of the classroom. Without this aspect, the students may think that they can take advantage of me because I am their "friend". In order to illustrate that I have the power in the classroom, I will make sure that within the first few weeks of school I am a little tougher and more controlling in the classroom. I will accomplish this by enforcing classroom rules consistently and keeping my expectations of performance high. Once the students understand the routine of my classroom, I can begin to loosen up on the reigns a little. This technique should help the students to respect me as their teacher and think of me as someone they can trust.